Jax Always Wins in the End
by lovethatignites
Summary: Who knew being punished by the Witches' Council could be such a great thing for Jax concerning a certain Chosen One? Well, we shouldn't be surprised; he always wins in the end, after all. (Not for Daniel fans.)


**A/N: I know I still have to finish my threeshot, but this idea came to me the other day so it's what I've been working on for the past few days (ghostgirl19 will understand, hehe). Enjoy!**

* * *

Andi Cruz sighed and blew a stray piece of brown hair out of her eyes. She scoured the hospital room for an interesting object that hadn't been chosen yet. But between her, Daniel Miller, and an entire afternoon-turned-evening, practically everything had already been chosen twice. At last she said, "I spy with my little eye something square."

"The TV," Daniel said without hesitation.

"Hooray."

"Andi, that's the fourth time you've picked the TV," the tall boy complained, shifting in his seat.

"Tell me something I don't know, genius," she snapped. "There's nothing left in the whole room to pick!"

"Yeah, well, that's kinda what happens when you've been in a hospital room for six hours!"

Clearly the athlete wasn't thrilled about spending his Sunday at the hospital with the short girl. It hadn't been so bad when his girlfriend Emma Alonso was there, too, but she'd left five hours ago. Her dad had called and said it was urgent she come home immediately. Emma had asked Daniel to stay with Andi and keep her company, so Daniel had agreed. But now he really wished he'd have made up an excuse and left with her.

Andi's eyes lit up with fury. "It's your fault!"

"How is it my—"

"If you just would've stayed still and let me cut your hair—"

"With your chain saw?!"*

"Uh, yeah! Your hair is like a Brillo Pad!"

"I don't even know what that is!"

"Funny, considering you have one ON YOUR HEAD!"

"Ms. Cruz?" a deep male voice said from the door.

Andi and Daniel quickly composed themselves and smiled.

"Yes, Doc?" she inquired sweetly.

The kind older man walked into the room and smiled. "How's the hand?"

"Uh, pretty good." She held up her bandaged and stitched hand. "The burning sensation's gone down a lot since earlier."

"And you haven't attempted using your phone?"

"Nope. I've been keeping myself entertained the old fashioned way." She glared at Daniel. "Well, I've been trying."

The doctor gently took hold of Andi's hand and examined it. "Well then I've got some good news for you. Your parents are waiting in the lobby. You're free to go home."

"Really?!" Andi and Daniel asked in excited unison. Last Andi had heard she wasn't getting discharged until sometime tomorrow morning. She'd planned on taking the day off from school and everything.

"Yes, really," the doctor said with a chuckle. Then his face grew serious. "Well, providing that you promise not to… misuse… chainsaws in the future." A disturbed expression overcame his features as he examined Daniel's hair. It was unruly and uneven and just flat-out bad.

"It looked better before," Daniel quickly explained.

The doctor grimaced. "Right." He turned around and left.

Andi got to her feet and yelped with joy. "Let's get out of here!"

Daniel put the hospital bed in lowest position and followed after her. Relieved didn't even begin to cover how he was feeling right now.

* * *

Anxious didn't even begin to cover how Emma was feeling right now. She was leaning against a kitchen island, drumming the nails of her left hand on the counter top while her right hand held her cell phone to her ear. Waiting through ring after ring of her father not picking up was agonizingly stressful. She was about to chicken out and hang up when he answered on the fifth and final ring.

"Emma!" Francisco's voice boomed, less than cheerful. "Where are you? It's late."

Emma closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "I know. I'm really sorry, Dad. I totally lost track of the time." At least that part was the truth. She'd left the hospital at three in the afternoon. Before she knew it, it was eight o'clock at night.

"Well what's going on?"

_You can do this._ "Andi's parents had a really big fight. They were screaming and yelling and it ended with her dad storming out. He didn't come home and Andi was really shaken up trying to comfort her mom and all so she asked me to come over."

"Are Andi and her mother alright?" Francisco asked, his tone softening.

"They're hanging in there," Emma said, biting down on her thumbnail. "But Andi was really hoping I could sleep over. I'd hate to say no, all things considered, but if you'd rather I come home—"

"It's okay, Em," her father said. "You stay at Andi's. I'm proud of you for being such a great friend."

A pang of guilt hit Emma's chest. "Thanks, Dad. And I'm not sure if I'll be in school tomorrow. It'll just depend on how Andi and her mother are doing. Is that okay?"

"It's perfectly fine. I understand completely."

"Thanks."

"Give Andi and her mother my best. I'll see you sometime tomorrow."

"Alright. Love you."

"Love you, too."

_Click._

The second the line went dead, Emma powered her phone off. The last thing she needed was a _Hey where are you? _text from Daniel tomorrow morning. She inhaled through her nose and exhaled through her mouth, attempting to expel her nerves from her being.

Jax Novoa walked around the corner and asked, "Good?"

She nodded. "Good."

"Then let's get back to work."

Emma followed him through the hallway to his living room where they had spent the past four and a half hours poring over dozens and dozens of spell books.

"You know…" Jax took a seat and threw his arm around the back of the couch. "We could take a break for a while." His grin suggested he wanted her to sit next to him. "Just sit on the couch and chill."

_Yeah, great. Just chilling on the couch allll day with my Em. Cuddling._

Emma blushed at the memory and gave him a reprimanding look. "Nice try. Agamemnon gave us a time frame, remember?" She figured she'd remind him of that instead the fact she was dating Daniel, seeing as he didn't care about the latter.

He sighed. "Fine. Where did we leave off?"

"I think we were halfway through berry potions…" Emma perched herself on the edge of the coffee table and scanned the page of a red spell book until she found the heading she was looking for. "Ah! Strawberry healing potions is the last thing I read."

Jax picked up the black spell book he'd last looked at and nodded. "And I was on raspberry." He glanced up and said, "You know you can read from the couch, too, right?"

"Jax…"

"What? Afraid Daniel would have a problem with you sitting next to me?"

_Daniel would have a problem with me being here to begin with._

Before she could respond, Jax said, "Oh, come on. When we were together, you hugged Daniel at Katie's party and congratulated him on the play in the middle of one of our dates. And correct me if I'm wrong, but I didn't complain about either of those things, did I?"

"Well—"

"But if Daniel's not laid back like that…" He shrugged and crossed one leg over the other in that adorable ankle-to-lower-thigh manner of his. "I guess it makes sense. He must be insecure about your relationship."

"Daniel is not insecure!" Emma said defensively.

"Prove it." And then he smirked and added, "I _dare _you."

And again: more memories she shouldn't have been thinking about while she was dating Daniel. She bit her lip. "I'm proving it by spending the night…"

"That's not proving anything; that's something you have to do because of the Council."

Pause, pause, pause.

Finally, Emma picked up the spell book and moved to sit next to Jax on the couch. She was all too aware of his strong arm touching her shoulders, doubly all too aware of the way her heart skipped a beat at the physical contact, and triply all too aware of how good it felt.

The wizard flashed his winning smile. "Now was that so difficult?"

Emma's silence, reluctance to make eye contact, and ever-present blush said it all.

* * *

The next morning, Andi arrived at the Alonso household to find it was empty. At first she thought only Mr. Alonso had left since his car was missing. But upon letting herself in through the front door (since it was literally never locked), she discovered Emma was gone, too.

Huh. She must have assumed Andi was still at the hospital and therefore left for school with her dad. Andi still wasn't allowed to use her cell phone so she hadn't told Emma she went home last night. She'd thought maybe Daniel would give her the news, but apparently not. _He was probably too busy crying all night about his hair_, she thought with an eye roll.

After inhaling two bowls of cereal (don't judge; best friends share food), Andi booked it to school and made it to homeroom just before the bell rang. As her day went on, she realized Emma wasn't at school. She wasn't in any of the classes they had together and Andi hadn't seen her in the hallway. She even checked the nurse's office, but nothing. Well, nothing besides Sebastian who had gotten hit in the face with a volleyball during gym class. Sure, he shouldn't have been filming while playing the game, but it wasn't his fault Gigi made him record literally everything.

Andi was on her way to find Daniel between fifth and sixth periods to ask him if he knew what was up when she ran into Emma's dad.

"Oh, Principal Alonso!" she exclaimed. "My bad."

Then a strange thing happened: the middle-aged man's forehead creased and he placed a hand on her shoulder in a fatherly way. "Andi," he said solemnly. "It was very brave of you to come today. How are you doing?"

Andi's nose wrinkled with confusion. "Uhh… I'm fine, thanks? But it's not a big deal; I went to school without Emma every day for nine years."

Francisco blinked then tilted his head. "Wait. You came to school and Emma didn't? But she stayed at your house last night."

_Oh shit! I guess I'm supposed to cover for her!_

"She _did _stay at your house last night, right?"

"Uh, yeah! Totally! Uh, see, what happened was she woke up really sick so she decided to chill at my place for the day. My mom's watching after her."

Principal Alonso crossed his arms over his chest and nodded. "Right. So, just to refresh my memory, why was it again that she stayed at your house last night?"

"Ummmmm…" What was a lie Emma would come up with? "I… um… well, you know how I hurt my hand? Well, I wanted her to go with me to buy _Zombie Apocalypse 3_ so she could do all the pushing and shoving! Yeah, um, it came out last night at midnight and the fan mobs get crazy. There was a lot of tackling… and blood… wouldn't have been too good for the hand."

Apparently Andi wasn't the only one who found her lie unconvincing. Mr. Alonso's face darkened. "She didn't stay at your house last night, did she?"

"Yes she did!" she said frantically. "She totally did! We were up until three this morning mastering the game! I'm used to pulling all-nighters so I was good to come to school but Emma was really tired and she didn't want you to be mad if she fell asleep in class so she took the day off to rest."

"So if I call your mother right now—" He reached into his pants pocket and extracted his cell phone.

"Don't do that!" the feisty girl exclaimed out of reflex.

"Jig's up, Andi," Principal Alonso said in a tone that told her shit just got real. _"Where is my daughter?"_

"Fine… Honestly? I don't know. I've been wondering that all day."

The man stared at her for what felt like an extremely uncomfortable eternity. At last he said, "So… you seriously have no idea where she was last night?"

The late bell rang.

"No, sir."

"Then who—" And just like that, his concern morphed into fury. "_Miller._" He fast-walked past Andi, down the hall, around the corner, and down another hall until he arrived at the class he knew Daniel had fourth period: English. He threw the door open and shouted, "MILLER!"

Like a deer in headlights, Daniel's head shot up with fear. The room became silent; all eyes split between him and their principal. Gigi whipped out her phone and started recording.

"M-Mr. Alon—"

"DID YOU SLEEP WITH MY DAUGHTER LAST NIGHT?"

Daniel's face turned the brightest shade of red, completely mortified. Half his classmates erupted into laughter, half yelled things like "YOU GO, DANNY BOY!" and Gigi… Gigi grinned from ear to ear, catching it all on film.

"N-No, sir, I—"

"You're coming with me! My office! Now!" He stormed over to the frightened boy, grabbed him by the collar of his dress shirt, and dragged him out the door. The English teacher could do nothing more than stare in shock while her students tried to catch their breath.

Daniel attempted to protest down every hall Principal Alonso dragged him, but it was no use; the more he denied the accusation, the more Emma's father was sure he was lying. At long last they arrived at the principal's office. Mr. Alonso threw the boy in a chair and towered over him, looking as though he wanted to kill him. Which he did.

"Mr. Alonso, I swear—"

"Shut it, Miller! Do you have any idea how angry I am right now? Sleeping with my daughter? It's bad enough you're dating her but _sleeping_ with her? Should I have her tested? Or is that where she's at right now?"

As offensive as those claims were, Daniel knew better than to defend himself. "No, Mr. Alonso, I—"

"And WHAT is wrong with your hair?! Is it just me or has it actually gotten WORSE?!"

Clinging to the last shred of dignity he had left, Daniel tried really hard to remember his mother's words from last night and this morning: _It's not so bad, Daniel. It'll grow back._ "I don't see how that's relevant—"

"WHERE'S MY DAUGHTER?"

"I DON'T KNOW!"

"Don't you lie to me!"

"Mr. Alonso, I'm not lying! The last time I saw Emma was yesterday at the hospital!"

"Hospital?"

"Yes! You called her and said it was an emergency so she left. I've been worried about her all day. I've texted her like a billion times but she hasn't answered. I thought maybe—"

"Whoa whoa whoa: why was she at the hospital?"

"We were there for Andi. She cut her hand on her chainsaw."

"How—"

"She was trying to cut my hair."

The man examined the uneven poof and shook his head with disgust. "You sicken me."

"I know."

"FARRAH!" he hollered out the door, across the hall, and into the main office. "Bring me today's absentee list!"

Promptly, the elderly secretary appeared at the door, white sheet of paper in hand. Francisco took it then dismissed her to her regular station. His eyes scanned every column of names twice.

"But this doesn't make sense!" He walked back behind his desk, sat down, and checked over each column a third time. "None of Emma's friends are absent today. If she wasn't with you or Andi, who was she with?"

"I don't—"

Suddenly, an extremely unpleasant thought occurred to Daniel, one that really made his pants bunch.

"Um, why don't I go check with Andi and see if she has any ideas?"

"Alright, but report back to me in ten minutes or it's detention for a month."

"I already have detention for the next _two_ months…" he muttered.

"What did you say?"

"Nothing!" He hurried to his feet and did the #mbmtrot** out the door, in search of a short girl with a purple streak in her hair. He finally found her at a water fountain. "Andi!" he exclaimed, trotting on up.

"Hey, what happened with—"

"He accused me of sleeping with her!"

Andi's face contorted so bad it looked like she was going to puke. "Ewh, gross!"

He smiled sarcastically. "Gee, thanks. I need to ask you a serious question. Do you think—"

She squinted down at his calves. "Why do your pants bunch up like that?"

"THEY JUST DO, OKAY?!" He stomped his foot, close to tears. "I don't need you interrogating me about the bunchiness of my pants today! My hair looks terrible, I forgot to take my risperdal this morning, and I just realized Emma might have been with—"

"Hey, Andi; hey, Daniel," a charming male voice said from behind them. "How's it going?"

Daniel's nostrils flared as he came face to face with the Australian. "I'm gonna kill you!" he yelled, lunging toward the better-looking guy. But Andi grabbed him by the arms and held him back before he could make contact.

Jax held up his hands in defense and slowly backed away. "Whoa, what's wrong?"

"Birdman, were you with Emma last night?" the short girl asked, struggling to restrain the unicorn-like man child. "We don't know where she's at."

"No, Andi, I wasn't." He looked sincerely concerned. "But I sure hope she's alright."

Her eyes narrowed. "Uh, thanks?"

"No problem." He smiled kindly and turned to walk away but didn't get very far before Andi demanded, "WHAT'S THE SQUARE ROOT OF PI?" He turned around and tapped his index finger to his chin, deep in thought. "Hmmm. Well, pi is approximately 3.14 so the square root would be somewhere around… 1.77?"

"Aw, he's the clone!" Andi cried.

Jax Jr.'s eyes widened. "Uh…" Panicking, he quickly cast a spell to tele-transport out of there.

"Wait," Daniel said, finally breaking free from Andi's grip. "So if Jax sent his clone to school, then that means…"

Andi bit her lip. "Emma spent the night with Jax. And she's still with him."

Daniel's hair _really_ puffed up this time. "He's dead." And with that, he did the #mbmtrot right out the exit door, headed for Jax's house.

#dattrottho

* * *

Emma jolted awake, shivering. She glanced around, confused by her surroundings for just a moment before remembering where she was. She was lying down with Jax on his living room couch, taking a nap. His arms were protectively wrapped around her waist and her head was resting on his chest. A warm, fuzzy blanket was covering them both—partly. Emma's tank top clad shoulders were exposed to the somewhat chilly air, which explained why she'd woken up.

"You okay?" Jax asked.

Emma jumped a little and turned to look at him. "I didn't realize you were awake."

"I woke up when you flinched."

"Sorry," she said, embarrassed. "I'm just a little cold."

"Well, here." The wizard pulled the blanket up further to cover her shoulders. Immediately, she warmed up. "Better?"

A tingle of comfort coursed through her veins. He always took such good care of her.

She smiled and snuggled up closer to him. "Perfect." She closed her eyes, the faint trace of a smile still gracing her lips. "Thank you, Jax... You're so nice…"

Jax smiled down at her, sleepily playing with a strand of her luscious long brown hair. "Only for you."

She didn't giggle because she'd already fallen back asleep.

The wizard watched the beautiful witch dozing in his arms. The expression of total peace on her gorgeous face... the gentle rise and fall of her chest as she breathed… She was closer to perfection than any other person Jax had known his entire life.

Emma was sweet and gentle and innocent. She radiated warmth and happiness that you couldn't help but feel when you were around her. She was an angel and that was only more apparent when she was asleep. She was just so cute! Jax loved the precious girl in his arms so much. He wouldn't have traded this moment for anything in the world.

So of course it had to end.

Jax Jr. appeared out of nowhere in the middle of the living room. "Jax, we've got a problem," he announced.

Emma jumped once more, startled.

Jax glowered at his clone. "Uh, in case you didn't notice, I'm a little busy right now. So whatever it is, why don't you—"

"Andi and Daniel know you sent me to school for you."

The witch sat up, fear striking her heart. "Wait. Andi and Daniel went to school today?"

"How'd you give it away?" Jax demanded. How dare Jr. mess up like this!

The clone nervously wrung his hands. "They were looking for Emma so I tried to leave but then Andi asked me a math question and—"

"And you answered right on the spot?!" Jax sat up, too, downright disgusted. "Why would you do that?"

"I-I was just trying to be nice to her—"

"Again: why would you do that?"

He didn't get to answer because suddenly the front door was thrown open. In trotted Daniel, looking like #mbm on a mission. "JAX!" he shouted, headed toward the couch.

Emma's eyes widened and her heart beat up her throat. "Daniel."

Jax immediately held out his hand and created a blue shield around himself and his Em. Daniel ran into it, bounced backward, and fell down on his bottom. In the meantime, Jax cast the reversal spell to get rid of Jr.

A second later, Andi arrived in the doorway, huffing and puffing. When she took in the scene before her, she said, "Oh. Well this is good."

Emma frantically threw the blanket off Jax and herself and hurried out of the shielded area, hence making the shield disintegrate. "Daniel, are you alright?"

"Is it just me or did your hair actually get worse?" Jax inquired.

Daniel got to his feet before his girlfriend could touch him. "No, I'm not alright, Emma! Why would I be alright when you slept with Jax?"

"I-I didn't!" Emma spluttered.

"Come on, Em," Andi said gently, walking over to her best friend. "Don't lie. I'm not happy about it, but we know you did."

"I didn't—" she started to protest again, but Daniel interrupted her.

"Whoa whoa whoa: 'I'm not happy about it, but we know you did'?" Offense was written all over his face. "How come when I told you Mr. Alonso thought _I_ slept with her, you said, 'Ewh, gross!'?"

Jemma responded at the same time. Emma said, "My dad thinks we slept together?!" while Jax laughed and asked, "Would you even know what to do?"

Daniel lunged at the better-looking guy, but Emma quickly got in between them to prevent a fist fight from breaking out.

"Danny, why does my dad think…" She blushed at the very thought. "What he thinks?"

"Because you didn't show up to school!" her boyfriend exclaimed, so distraught he started pulling at his hair. Some of it fell out. "And now I know why!"

"Jax and I didn't sleep together!" Emma said quickly, desperately. "I mean, we slept next to each other on the same couch at the same time, but we didn't _sleep _together!"

"That doesn't change the fact that you're cheating on me!"

"I'm not!"

"Oh, so I suppose you two were just 'studying' all night, right?" He made the face he'd made that day in the nurse's office when Andi told him not to get all "jealous and stuff" over Jax.

"Actually…" The Australian grinned, stood up from the couch, and walked over to join the group. "We didn't study all night. We didn't study at all." Then he smirked and added, "Well, we didn't study _textbooks_—"

"_Jax!" _Emma screeched, another blush heating up her face. "Look, the reason I spent the night here is—"

"Emma…" the wizard said in a warning tone.

"It's okay," the witch said. "We fixed it so it doesn't matter if they know now."

"What are you _talking_ about?" Daniel whined, stomping his foot and consequently causing his pants to bunch up even more. Andi shook her head, embarrassed _for_ him.

"You know how Agamemnon isn't happy I won't break up with you?"

The human boy turned up his nose. "I'm aware."

"Well, he also wasn't happy Jax broke into the Council entrance and stole his powers back. So, when he encountered a… problem… he decided to make us fix it as punishment."

Andi's eyebrows furrowed. "What kind of problem?"

"He got a magic rash..." Emma answered, looking at the floor. "Everywhere."

Andi shuddered. "Sounds disturbing."

"Like Daniel's hair."

"Jax!" Emma slapped his arm to which he held out his hands in a _What did I say? _manner. She sighed and turned back to her boyfriend. "There was only one potion that could cure the rash. The list of ingredients for the potion was in some ancient spell book but Agamemnon didn't know which one. So he sent us a bunch of spell books and gave us twenty-four hours to find it. We weren't allowed to tell anyone because he was embarrassed. If we failed, he'd take our powers away."

"So did you find the potion?" Andi asked.

"Yep," Jax nodded. Then he grinned at Daniel and added, "Four hours ago."

Emma panicked and looked back and forth between the two boys, one of whom looked smug, the other who looked as angry as the time he'd broken up with her because of the clones. "Daniel—"

"So you just cuddled on the couch for four hours?" he seethed. "With _Jax?_"

"W-We were really tired—"

"And I'm _so_ good at cuddling." Jax slung an arm around Emma's shoulders. "Isn't that right, Em?"

She immediately pushed him away, begging him with her eyes to shut up.

Daniel stepped forward to attack Jax (which as we all know would not have ended well for dear Danny Boy), but before he could even try, his phone went off. He pulled it out of the pocket of his bunchy pants and answered. "Hello?"

"MILLER!" Mr. Alonso's voice boomed. "Detention for another month!"

_Click._

Daniel slowly returned his phone to his pocket and muttered, "Well, that's _three_ months detention now…"

Emma's eyes widened. "Oh no. My dad! Where does he think I am?"

"He doesn't know, but as soon as I get back to the school—"

Jax cast a spell in his head and shot it at Daniel. The boy froze for a moment and then he came to and looked around. "Uh, hey guys. Why are we all at Jax's house?"

Andi's jaw dropped in awe. "Oh, that is sweet!" she said, literally applauding her frenemy.

Emma's jaw dropped, too, but it was for a much different reason. "You did not just—"

"Hey, Daniel!" Jax smiled. "School got dismissed early. We were just about to have a group study session." Holding his hand behind his back, Jax cast a spell and made Daniel's school things (bag, text books, etc.) appear behind him on the coffee table. He could take care of making Daniel's bicycle appear outside later. "Andi, why don't you show Daniel to the couch?"

"Sure." The short girl unsubtly winked, thrilled by the spell she'd just witnessed. She grabbed Daniel's thin arm and dragged him over to the couch.

"I cannot _believe_ you," Emma hissed. "How could you use that spell on him again? Do you not remember what happened last time?"

"Hey," Jax said quietly, placing a hand on her forearm. "He was pissed at you for sleeping with me—"

"Would you _please_ not phrase it that way—"

"And he was going to tell your dad where you were last night."

Emma's eyes widened for the billionth time since Daniel had shown up. "My dad—"

"Don't worry; I'll go take care of him right now."

"Jax—"

"You seem to be forgetting that the spell works perfectly when I cast it myself," he said, crossing his toned arms over his chest. "It only malfunctioned when we cast it at the same time."

"But…"

"Or we could tell your dad that you slept with me."

"J—" She stopped when he started laughing at her reaction. She pursed her lips and said, "Fine. Do the spell."

"Awesome. But, uh, just as a side note…" He took her hands in his, sending bolts of electricity through her entire being. "If Daniel ever gets pissed at you again and you can't get out of it, and you don't want to use magic to fix things… Don't be afraid to go after someone else." He winked then walked past her and out the front door, leaving Emma to stare after him much like that day at The Seven...

Before she realized it, she was playing back that memory of theirs. They were chatting at The Seven after a Sharks meet when Jax told Emma he hadn't used magic to beat Daniel; he'd won second place fair and square. And then he started talking about how he was going to beat Daniel next time. Suddenly the conversation about swimming wasn't really a conversation about swimming because Jax had looked into Emma eyes and intensely told her, "I always win in the end. You'll see."

And oh, was she starting to see.

* * *

***Keep an eye out for a hilarious upcoming story of my sister's. The chainsaw thing was inspired by something from it. ;)**

****The beautiful #mbmtrot hashtag was created by the wonderful ghostgirl19!**


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